Kejriwal on Punjab: ‘By the time others wake up, their game will be over’

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will win the Punjab assembly elections next year, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday, adding he expected the Congress to be the main opponent and not the SAD-BJP ruling combine.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at a rally in Punjab’s Muktsar held earlier this year.(HT FILE PHOTO)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will win the Punjab assembly elections next year, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday, adding he expected the Congress to be the main opponent and not the SAD-BJP ruling combine.

“We are winning (in Punjab),” Kejriwal told a group of journalists at his residence. “Delhi will be repeated in Punjab.”

The AAP, which stormed to power in Delhi last year, is making a serious attempt at power in Punjab where it won four seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Kejriwal also said that the party has even started door-to-door campaigning all across Punjab. “By the time others wake up, their game will be over,” Kejriwal said, He, however, refused to say who would be the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate, and

said “We will reveal that at the right moment.”

AAP leaders also did not comment on the reported move by state BJP leader Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu to join the AAP along with her husband, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, ahead of the polls.

Won’t allow Kejri to enter Punjab: Bittu

Chandigarh: Alleging that the AAP was being funded by Sikh separatists staying abroad, the Punjab Congress on Thursday said it won’t allow AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal to enter Punjab. Kejriwal is scheduled to begin his visit from February 20.

“The Punjab Congress will not allow Kejriwal to enter Punjab if the AAP does not change its agenda,” Bittu said in a statement here. Bittu claimed that he would stop Kejriwal’s cavalcade from entering Punjab at the Shambhu barrier (at border with Haryana). “I will lead the protest along with 35,000 terrorism–affected families to stop him as the AAP is playing with the sentiments of Punjab’s people,” he said. Bittu also sought AAP’s clarification on its funding in Punjab.

The Congress leader’s assertions came a day after the AAP leadership disowned a poster carrying the pictures of Sikh militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Kejriwal.